"The year is 3326. Nigel
Sheldon, one of the founders of the Commonwealth, receives a visit from
the Raiel—self-appointed guardians of the Void, the enigmatic construct
at the core of the galaxy that threatens the existence of all that
lives. The Raiel convince Nigel to participate in a desperate scheme to
infiltrate the Void.

Once inside, Nigel discovers that humans are
not the only life-forms to have been sucked into the Void, where the
laws of physics are subtly different and mental powers indistinguishable
from magic are commonplace. The humans trapped there are afflicted by
an alien species of biological mimics—the Fallers—that are intelligent
but merciless killers.

Yet these same aliens may hold the key to
destroying the threat of the Void forever—if Nigel can uncover their
secrets. As the Fallers’ relentless attacks continue, and the fragile
human society splinters into civil war, Nigel must uncover the secrets
of the Fallers—before he is killed by the very people he has come to
save."

The
Abyss Beyond Dreams - well deserved title given the content -
is the first of a duology ending with Night Without Stars which I expect
to advance the Commonwealth universe beyond the Evolutionary Void
timeline, though for now we are still within it.

High class sf
combined with the Void magic like properties, an entertaining appearance
from Paula Myo who helps Nigel - presumed gone with a colony fleet ~3000
AD but still in the Commonwealth semi-incognito in 3326 as per the
blurb - manage a perfect heist, outside ANA borders obviously given who
Paula Myo is, and get ***** to enhance the odds of success in his Void
expedition - again per the blurb which is quite accurate as far as it
goes.

Meantime - whatever that means obviously as the Void has its
own time - inside the Void, Bienvenido already is a human planet about
3000 years old, with population descending from the Brandt colony ships from about 500 years before in Commonwealth time as per above note
about timelines, and the people there fight a continuous war against the
local Fallers who are trapped also in the Void. We actually learn a lot about the Fallers as the book goes on and they are clearly set to be a powerful
antagonist in future Commonwealth books if the author wants to write
more there.

A society with a mix of modern and magic - whatever tech
that works plus the Void psychic capabilities - led by a corrupt
aristocracy descended from the officers of the fleet of which The
Captain, Philious, currently 77 as while their Advancer genes are slowly
losing ground, people on Bienvenido still live longer than current
humans, and his eldest son, The First Officer and sadistic villain
Aothori, are at the top within a veneer of democracy in which the
governing Citizen's Dawn party has no real political rivals.

Heavily
militarized due to the Fallers - huge eggs fall all the time from the
strange forest like artifact in orbit and absorb humans and other
animals, mimicking them perfectly - Bienvenido is resisting the Fallers
relatively successfully for now, though there are dark rumors about
Faller nests infiltrating cities.

Escaping from a close encounter
with an egg as a green recruit - though losing one hand in the process
and seeing his best friend from childhood ingested and becoming a Faller
- lieutenant Slvasta is fanatical about fighting the Fallers in his
province; very successful and attracting a large following from the
regular soldiers who know their odds of surviving are the best under his
command, he becomes an embarrassment to his lazy superiors so he is
promoted to captain and shipped as regimental liaison to the capital
Varlan.

Slvasta
is still bugged by his last active mission where he was only partly
successful as he eradicated the infestation but could not find the usual
number of eggs and by an encounter with a strange trader and his
entourage, trader who called himself by an unusual name - Nigel - and
whom Slvasta proved that he was human by having him cut his finger as Faller blood is blue, but still suspected of having something to do
with the missing eggs.

In the capital, Slvasta tries to change
things and improve the odds of fighting the Fallers against bureaucratic
obstacles, while being pulled into opposites by his friendship with a
capable and less corrupt aristocratic officer and by his association
with the humbler citizens too. Similarly he is pulled between a rich
girl whom he would have a chance of marrying as she is only 5th daughter
while Slavsta is something of a hero - marriage which would open him
the path to ascension and eventually to lead a regiment or even more -
and a humbler tax office girl whom he meets when he tries to find out
more about "Nigel".

And so it goes, lots of things happen, the
novel is structured beautifully as it starts with a horror like chapter - quite relevant later too - in which the Fallers appear, followed by
Nigel and Paula in the Commonwealth, then followed by Slvasta's odyssey
and then things are pulled together masterfully. There is everything one wants in sf - great characters, mind bending stuff, adventure, politics, romance, revolution....

Just
to give one example of the elements that make the book excellent,
example that is not that spoilery - the Void has many odd properties
compared to the regular universe (as we learned in the Void trilogy),
however it needs internal consistency, so when even stranger things
happen, the Void manufactures evidence of past things that actually
never happened that way at least, or as Nigel puts it:

"That’s
how the Void outside the loop attempts to balance the books and make the
present correct, to neutralize the paradox.” He grinned savagely. “It’s
like the old Creationists claiming God laid down the dinosaur fossils a
few thousand years ago."(only here it actually happened/s...)

The
ending is awesome and quite surprising in many ways and while obviously
requiring the announced sequel, it has enough closure to be fully
satisfying - given the end of The Evolutionary Void we know what happens
with the Void, and I was still quite surprised.

Overall just
superb stuff, Peter Hamilton in great form and a very balanced book between the
sfnal human universe and the magic like Void with mostly new elements so
no feeling of a retread of the Void trilogy or the original
Commonwealth duology.